


Dungeons and Disasters

by Hinganbachuru (Twilight_Joltik)



Category: Hidden Block - Fandom, Normal Boots, PBG Hardcore
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, MMORPGs, Minor amnesia, RPG AU, SAO AU basically, Set in the vague future, Virtual Reality, more tags and charas and ships to be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-01 12:39:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13295079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_Joltik/pseuds/Hinganbachuru
Summary: Austin wakes up playing a VR game he had no memory of starting playing and finds he's unable to log off. At least, not until he and his new "party" beat the game.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been kicking around this idea for a while now and finally, I feel like I got it to a form I could get it to work in. So, here's my weird little basically SAO but hopefully not sucky AU, hopefully, you'll all enjoy it!
> 
> Also should go without saying but this is a fictional story about fictional characters that in no way reflects on the real people who share their names.

“Choose your Class!”; the text in front of him proclaimed. Austin looked over it over and over, his head feeling kinda weird. He was playing a game, right? Some sort of VR game, he figured, considering when he turned his head, he could see more of the basic looking black cubes in the interface’s background, and he didn’t feel a controller in his hand. Weird, he didn’t remember starting playing, or could recall the game’s name. 

Any worries were wiped away as he started looking over the options and got excited rather than scared. He couldn’t find an option for character creation - probably for the best since he’d end up spending an hour on it only to hate what he’d made in the long run - but he did see nine class icons in front of him that all looked pretty cool.

He reached out towards the one with the sword laying on a shield, and a description popped up. “Paladin - Can use almost any weapon, extremely slow without a mount but very strong and durable.” Alongside it was a weird little chart; a triangle with three points labeled “strength”, “defense”, and “speed”, with the strength and defense points being massive and speed being pretty tiny. A few other statistics were listed next to it, like a high HP stat and icons that looked like a sword, lance, and an axe. 

It all sounded super cool! No real downsides besides the low speed, which how big a downside that was really depended on the game. If it was like Fire Emblem, that might be a huge weakness, but in most other games it just determined whether your character went first or second, or maybe their movement. Maybe he’d better check out the other classes.

While a lot of the other classes sounded kinda cool, most of them were too basic or had too many downsides. Mercenary and Soldier just sounded boring - well rounded but with a weapon specialty and one stat they were best in - while Bard and Thief were too weak except in one area to sound like fun to play as and all the mage classes sounded kinda samey. Was Paladin worth the gamble on how important speed might be? 

He glanced at the description once more. Slow without a mount? Wait, so did that mean he got a horse or something that would make his speed problems go away? Then it was a no-brainer! Paladin was definitely the best! He selected it with a smile, certain it would be a good idea. 

Light filled his vision, and when it faded, he was standing in a field. If he’d had any doubts before, the slight breeze around him as he turned every which way to take in the sprawling sights confirmed that this was definitely VR, and a really advanced one at that. He felt like he was really there! 

A few others stood in the field with him, looking around in a way that made him pretty certain they were other players and not NPCs. One guy kept staring at the sky, someone else was bent down, picking at a wildflower, and another was already attacking the air with his sword. He wasn’t sure if they were friends or foes, or whether or not to approach them. He was just left looking around nervously until he spotted someone he knew for certain was a friend.

“McJones!”, he called out, waving to his big brother. He wasn’t sure if he should call him that or not; some days he hated his real name with a burning passion and others he glared at Austin for calling him anything but. Still, Stewart responded to it by looking his way and walking towards him. 

“Austin,” he called back, sounding a tad exasperated. “I guess you’re here too…”

“Uh, were we playing together?”, Austin suggested, slowly remembering that he actually wasn’t sure what they were playing or when they’d started. 

Stewart frowned. “I can’t remember. Something must have gone wrong…”

“Gone wrong?”, an unfamiliar voice repeated. The guy who’d been slashing his sword at nothing ran up to them. “What’d’ya mean, gone wrong? Is this gonna be like fuckin’ SAO or something?”

Austin cocked his head to the side. “Uh, sorry? Who are you? SA-what now?”

“Sword Art Online!”, the guy exclaimed like it was something you’d learn in kindergarten. “You know, that really old anime where people got trapped inside a video game and if they died in it, they’d die in real life? Uh, I’m Dean, by the way.”

Seemingly almost automatically, Stewart extended a hand to Dean. “Pleasure. I certainly hope it’s not that bad of a mistake.”

Dean huffed, refusing to shake his hand. “Well, it better not be, ‘cause that anime’s dumb as shit!” It had been like, maybe a minute since they met, but Austin could already tell Dean was quite a big personality. He talked loudly and colorfully, sure, but mostly it was how he was puffing his chest out and getting up in Stewart’s face, like he was asking for a fight.

But, before he could provoke him too badly, another guy came towards them. Most of his face was covered by his sunglasses, but his mouth was enough to tell he was pretty sheepish. “U-u-um…”

“Oh! Hi!”, Austin greeted, hoping to divert his brother and/or Dean’s attention from each other. “It’s nice to meet you! I’m Austin, and you?”

“Barry,” the sunglasses guy said plainly. “What’s going on? I heard shouting.”

Stewart turned to him. “Barry, do you remember what you were doing before you started playing?”

He shook his head. “No, not really. You?”

“No, none of us do, I don’t think,” Dean added. “That’s why we’re freaking out!”

“Why are you freaking out?”, someone else still questioned. A guy with a mess of fluffy hair walked towards them, dressed in robes and a pointy hat that made it pretty clear he’d chosen a Mage class. “Do you guys not remember anything either?”

Austin nodded. “Yeah, we don’t remember how we got here or anything. Is that what’s going on for all of us?”

“I mean,” another voice started. He looked over to see a guy with swoopy hair and half-lidded eyes coming their way. “I know I don’t. I’m Jared, by the way.”

“Jeff,” the fluffy-haired guy said. “I’m Jeff. Nice to meet you Jared and… uh…”

He looked towards Austin, who froze up momentarily before getting the words out. “Austin. I’m Austin.”

Jeff nodded. “Nice to meet you too, Austin.” He looked around. “Is this all of us, right here?”

Austin repeated the motion, before his eyes fell on a figure kneeled down in the grass, still picking around at flowers. “I don’t know him,” he said, pointing him out.”

“Hey, you!”, Jared yelled at him. The guy looked up. “Stop picking flowers and come over here!”

The guy ran over, clearly a bit sour about the whole thing. “Fine, whatever! I was looking for useful items, but fine.”

Useful items? In the flowers? Maybe; the guy looked like a White Mage or Cleric or whatever, so maybe he had some Apothecary skill? He had no idea.

Dean turned towards them, seemingly noticing the new face. “Oh, hey, you look like a cool guy! What’s your name?”

“Ray,” he said plainly. “You’re Dean, right? I heard you shouting.”

Nodding almost proudly, Dean looked around. “Looks like we’re all here!”

As Jared muttered “I just said that” under his breath, Stewart let out a sigh. “Alright, fine. So, what do we do? We don’t know what we’re playing or why we’re here, so what can we do? Just wander around?”

Suddenly, a strange, almost frigid voice filled the air, sending shivers down Austin’s spine. “Oh, there’s no need to wander,” it- he? It sounded like a he- stated. “Instead, just listen.”

A figure suddenly appeared a ways away, bathed in a strange purple light and wearing tattered robes. He looked over them all with a strange smile on his face. “Welcome, heroes,” he greeted in that same cold voice. “This adventure should be a lot of fun.”


	2. Chapter 2

A little sense of panic seized Austin’s throat and dried up any words he could think to say as he looked up at the strange figure that had appeared. If this was some weird trap, that would make him the mastermind, right? Did this guy have them trapped? Have power over their lives and deaths? How scared was he supposed to be, and was this weird sense of perverse excitement completely insane or normal?

 

But, not everyone was stunned speechless. Jared, for one, asked an almost bored-sounding question. “Okay, so are you the DM or what?”

 

“Dungeon Master?”, the figure repeated. After a moment’s pause, he laughed a bit, sounding distinctly more human than he had before. “Yes, that works. I’m your party’s Dungeon Master.”

 

“Can you like, translate that to English?”, Dean shouted. “We don’t all speak fluent Dweeb!”

 

Jared cast him a nasty look as the mysterious guy nodded. “If you don’t know what that means, essentially it’s that I am your guide on this journey and may interfere if needed.”

 

“Journey?”, Stewart repeated. “Elaborate; do we have a goal? Why don’t we remember starting playing?”

 

“One question at a time,” the figure insisted. “There are answers, but we don’t need to rush them all out.”

 

Something about that made Austin feel a bit uneasy. “But we wanna know what’s going on!”, he countered, stomach twisting. “Is it like that Sword Arc-”

 

“Sword _Art_!”, Dean corrected.

 

Quick verbal backspace: “-Sword _Art_ Online thing; are we gonna die if we die in the game?”, he finished.

 

“Well…” The wizard looking guy paused, looking around. “Let’s just say you won’t have to find that out if you’re careful enough.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”, Ray questioned rather loudly.

 

The creepy guy glared. “Do you want to find out first-hand?”

 

Dead silence fell over the whole field, to the point all Austin could hear was his own pounding heart. He could see a wicked smirk under the so-called Dungeon Master’s crooked hat. “Good. So, your mission is simple: you need to beat this game.”

 

“So what, we gather four items based on the elements and fight the final boss?”, Jared questioned.

 

“Precisely,” said the wizard, and Jared’s face fell to an annoyed frown. “Long ago, four dragons ruled this land, and when they died, their hearts turned to stone. Each heart was-”

 

“We get the point,” Stewart blurted out. “Gather the four MacGuffins and we beat the game. And what, can we not log off until we beat the game?”

 

He definitely rolled his eyes, even if they were hidden. “I’d appreciate it if you would let me finish,” the wizard huffed. “But yes. Get the four Hearts of the Dragons, take them to the Dark Palace, and the game ends and the players can all go home. Until then, you’ll continue playing this game and inhabiting this world. Now, if you excuse me, I’ll be on my way.”

 

A puff of smoke burst from where the Dungeon Master had stood, and silence settled back over their group. It took a moment for everything he’d said at the end there to sink in but when it did, it hit like a hammer to the skull.

 

“We’re… trapped here…”, Austin repeated under his breath. Suddenly, the blue skies and rolling plains around him felt claustrophobic. He was trapped… he was trapped with five complete strangers and his brother inside a game… It sounded completely crazy; he couldn’t have imagined this ever happening to him even in his most off-the-wall fever dreams. Why him? Why any of them?

 

As his breaths constricted, he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and two voices running into each other:

 

“Hey, you’re alright… We’ll figure this out, okay?”

 

“Oh hey, I pulled up the spell menu… Here, lemme try something…”

 

_RAY cast SLEEP_

 

Before he could question the message that popped up, Austin felt a sudden calm washing over him, pulling blackness around him gently. His thoughts slowed to a crawl and he felt his limbs go limp. The last thing he registered was another message on his “screen”:

 

_AUSTIN fell asleep_

 

* * *

 

As Austin started to fall, Jeff instinctively grabbed onto his shoulder and attempted to help lay him down. He ended up just hooking his arms under his own and lowering him down onto the grass, but hesitated as his head was about to drop. That didn’t look like it could be comfortable, laying on the grass…

 

He stood back up to take off his own cloak and folded it up until it looked like a decent size and shape for a pillow. Then, he slipped it under Austin’s head. “There, that should help,” he said, more to himself than anyone else.

 

“What the hell was that for?”, Stewart demanded suddenly and loudly. Jeff tensed up and prepared an assurance that he was just trying to help until he realized Austin’s brother was going after Ray and not him.

 

Ray darted out of the way. “What, he was having a panic attack! I couldn’t just not do anything.”

 

“Oh, and you think it’ll be any better for him to wake up and remember why he was panicking?”, Stewart countered. “You could have at least been like ‘hey Austin, do you want to sleep on it?’ or something!”

 

“I- I’m sorry!”, Ray exclaimed. “I d-didn’t think!”

 

Stewart looked like he was about to say something else before Jeff realized that guy in the sunglasses - Barry? He thought he’d heard Barry - was looking at him, pointing at the two on the brink of a fight. Was he supposed to be keeping the peace? Well, he could sure try…

 

“H-hey!” He stepped in front of Stewart, holding his arms out. “We’re all on the same team here, you know! We have to stick together! Be friends!”

 

“Y-yeah!”, Ray added, really not helping actually, thank you. “We’re all friends here, right? No need to get super upset!”

 

Sighing deeply, Stewart looked between Jeff, Ray, and the sleeping Austin before shaking his head. “I don’t see a reason to stick together, if I’m being honest, or at least not all of us.”

 

Now everyone was staring at Stewart in disbelief, Jeff included. “H-huh?”, he stuttered out. “But… if we’re not all together, we’ll be in more danger! We don’t even know what we’re doing yet, so-”

 

“Exactly,” Stewart interjected. “We don’t know how this combat system works or game in itself, or even if there are other players, so what’s a bigger target; two or three clueless newbies, or seven?”

 

Okay, that was a fair point… “B-but still, if we did split up, we shouldn’t do it until we know how combat works and stuff!”

 

“Eh, I mean, it doesn’t make a giant difference,” Dean offered. “Might as well do it now that we’re on the subject, right?”

 

“B-but…”

 

Dean didn’t seem to even notice he was talking. “Plus we’ll get done a lot faster if we split up! So, we’ve gotta.”

 

“That doesn’t make it a good idea!”, Jeff objected, louder this time. He didn’t want things to already be going wrong. He was already freaked out by the whole couldn’t leave and possibly in mortal peril thing, so he really did not at all want to make things harder. “Please, can we just all try to protect each other at least until we know enough to not die instantly!”

 

“How about we compromise and just have the people who wanna leave go, and the people who wanna stay, er, stay?”, Ray suggested.

 

Quietly, Barry added something about how that didn’t make a lot of sense, but Jeff was a bit too stunned to voice that himself. Did literally everyone but him not see that this was a terrible idea? But, it seemed everyone accepted this without question.

 

Stewart nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Alright, so me and Dean can go, and whoever wants to can join us.”

 

“Shouldn’t you at least wait until your brother wakes up?”, Jeff questioned.

 

“Just tell him when he does,” Stewart countered. “We won’t be too far, granted that Ray didn’t put him into a coma.”

 

The two of them started off, with Jared casting an annoyed glance at them. “You don’t split the party…”, he muttered, before sighing. “I’m gonna go with them; they’re out of their minds and I really don’t want them running off alone to die. Hopefully, I can convince them to come back before it’s too late.”

 

“A-alright,” Jeff agreed quietly as Jared ran off.

 

Looking around, his heart dropped a bit. Just him and Ray and Barry and maybe Austin if he decided to not go after his brother when he woke up.

 

“We’re gonna die,” he mumbled to himself. “We are so screwed and we are going to die.”

 

“Chin up!”, Ray exclaimed with a smile that seemed painfully forced. “We’re gonna do fine! After all, we’ve got one important thing that they don’t!”

 

“A survival instinct?”, Jeff suggested.

 

“No.” Barry held up a piece of paper. “A map.”


End file.
